| A study was conducted at a high-performing school in Southern California to explore secondary students' understanding of global climate change. The study targeted student understanding of the causes of climate change, and the mechanism of climate change (or how climate change is actually occurring). Student misconceptions and sources of student understanding were also investigated. A five-item questionnaire collected both qualitative and quantitative data from 168 ninth-grade students in biology courses. Results suggest that students are generally aware of the different aspects of climate change, but generally do not possess any depth of understanding relating to the causes or mechanism. In addition, several common misconceptions relating to the phenomenon were observed. Student-identified sources of information regarding climate change included school, the Internet, documentary movies and documentary or news television, although no strong correlations were found between these sources and identification of scientifically accepted causes of climate change. |
